Redaction: Extinction Level Event (Part I)

by Andrews, Linda

  “Trust me.” Henry’s steel gray ponytail slipped over his shoulder when he looked over at Manny. “The people will come.”

  That’s what he was afraid of. People. Not all of them could be trusted. He’d tried to convince the adults that they were enough, but it had come to nada. They didn’t believe him. Manny tightened his grip on the handles and the ATV leapt forward, pulling abreast of Henry. “What if the people are sick? Are we going to let them join us?”

  “Yep.” Henry increased the distance between the two vehicles as they approached the corner.

  “But they could get the rest of us sick.” Manny’s chest tightened and he struggled to suck in a breath. The niños could get sick. Slowing the ATV, he banked through the turn.

  “That’s a possibility. But we could already be infected, just not showing signs of infection yet.”

  God, he hoped not. Manny wiped the sweat beading his forehead on his sleeve.

  “Those folks who are sick now will be able to nurse us back to health once they recover.” Henry eased up as the road straightened out.

  Through the haze, Manny could barely make out the turn into their cul-de-sac. “That’s if they survive.”

  A big if. The news had reported thousands of cases of Ash Pneumonia. And that was only one of the diseases coming his way. “What if they have the Plague? They said it could be passed from person-to-person by coughing.”

  “We’ll just have to pray the masks protect us.”

  Pray? Manny’s mouth opened. That was the old man’s solution? Manny had been down on his knees for weeks bargaining with God for his parents’ lives. Fat lot of good it had done him. “I—”

  “Do you hear something?” Two houses away from the gate leading into the neighborhood, Henry stopped his ATV.

  Manny nearly pitched over the handlebars of his ATV as he followed the older man’s lead. Killing the engine, he strained to pick up out the noise. Rats scratched at the piles of garbage. There. Fear drummed his chest. “Voices.”

  People.

  He swallowed the lump in his throat. What if it was the Aspero?

  Henry scratched his chin then tilted his head. “Walking on the road.”

  Manny stared down the street. If they tried to pass in front of the gate, whoever was on the other side of the fence would see them, know they were inside. If he or Henry started the engine, they would hear the motor. If they hadn’t already. “What do we do?”

  “Wait.” Henry crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the turn in the road.

  Manny licked his dry lips. Henry couldn’t do much from the top of the ATV except flee, but fleeing would lead the newcomers’ right to Rini, the niños and the women. He’d been stupid to leave the baseball bat behind. Hours of housebreaking and running the liberated goods back to Connie’s had made him relax his guard. Now they were helpless before whoever came through the gate. He glanced at the wheelchair and the leather pouch on its side.

  Maybe they weren’t completely helpless.

  “Do you want me to get your gun?”

  Henry shook his head. “Took it out and locked it in the safe after Lucia found it while unloading the last batch of goodies.”

  “Fuck!” Manny buried his face in his hands. Please God, don’t let the newcomers come into the neighborhood.

  “I tell you I heard something.” A man’s voice came down hard on each word.

  Manny straightened. The guy sounded pissed. Or desperate. Not a good sign.

  Henry uncrossed his arms, pulled up the bottom of his jeans and stuck his hand in his boot. He pulled out a six-inch curved knife.

  “We’ve been hearing cars leave all day.” A woman this time. “Look at how many we passed on the way here.”

  “They might have gas to spare,” the man insisted.

  “No one has gas to spare.” Another man spoke, with just the hint of a tremble in his voice. “Besides, we don’t even know where we’re going. Away from the fire isn’t exactly a good plan.”

  “Grandpa, will…” coughing interrupted the question.

  Niños. There were niños outside the gate. Manny glanced at Henry. The old man stared back. They had to welcome the newcomers into the neighborhood. If something happened to him, he needed to know that his niños would be taken care of. How could he demand something, if he wasn’t willing to do the same for others? With a nod, Manny started the ATV and eased it forward.

  Smiling, Henry did the same. As they neared the last house, he darted forward. “Hello! Hello. Who’s there?”

  “I told you I heard something.” The first man spoke again.

  Footsteps pounded on asphalt before the gate clanged.

  Henry veered toward the gate; Manny followed closely behind him. Twenty faces stared back at them from between the bars. The little kids were in arms and on shoulders. Masks obliterated nearly all their features. A few young teenagers and adults had winter scarves wrapped around their noses and mouths. Backpacks hung in twos on some people’s backs. Others had luggage with wheels leaning against their legs.

  Henry parked the ATV next to the sensor and the gates started to swing open. “Welcome to the neighborhood. How many are in your group?”

  A man with a blue floppy hat set the little girl on his hip down before moving to the front of the crowd and squeezing through the opening gate. As if they were attached to him, the group moved in lock step behind him.

  Manny eased beside the trailer, blocking the view of the wheelchair in the back and rested his hands lightly on the handles. They looked like normal people. Not that it said much. But the niños… The black toddler in an Asian guy’s arms couldn’t be his. They had to be taking care of each other.

  A very good sign.

  “There’re twenty-two of us.” Blue Hat tugged his matching knit scarf down and tucked it under his chin. The shadow of a beard clung to his jaw. “We won’t stay, but we’re hoping you might have a gallon or two of gas to spare. Just so we could be on our way.”

  Henry rubbed his chin before he too pulled down his mask. “A gallon won’t get you far, especially in a vehicle big enough to hold you all.”

  Ignoring the speaker, Manny flicked his attention to the others. A Latina hitched a bright white baby with a tail of red hair sticking out of her hat higher up her hip. A woman with wrinkles at the corners of her eyes held the hand of two girls with missing front teeth. Each child held a small green toy in their hands and had their matching masks tucked under their chins. A boy with the shadow of a goatee stared back at Manny.

  Those pale blue eyes seemed so familiar. Recognition skirted his thoughts. Where did he know that kid from? His incarceration? Maybe school.

  The boy hitched his chin in greeting.

  Manny replied in kind. These folks were from the area, but not from his neighborhood.

  “It’ll get us a bit farther down the road,” Blue Hat answered.

  So he wasn’t inclined to be too trusting either. Had they encountered the Aspero? They must have, if they’d lived in the area since the Redaction started. Unless the gang had expanded its territory into Tempe.

  Henry glanced west as if to see where they were headed. “What’s further down the road?”

  “A safe place.” Blue Hat cleared his throat.

  Two of the niños coughed. The adults holding them snugged them closer. A soft exclamation rippled through the group and the crowd shifted right as the gate started to close.

  “You don’t know where you’re going, do you?” Manny swung his leg over the ATV. His thighs throbbed from bending and squatting all day but he didn’t care. If they were going to do this, they needed to do this. Halfway measures might get everyone killed. “We know a safe place. The soldiers will be there.”

  Blue Hat squared his shoulders. “Don’t you watch the news? The soldiers are all sick. There’s no one on the streets except those of us fleeing our burning homes.” The man spread his arms wide as if to encompass the whole neighborhood.

  Henry cleared his thr
oat. “The sergeant-major told us where the soldiers are making their new camp.”

  Blue Hat’s palms slapped his thighs. “Why would he tell you that?” Confusion clouded his voice.

  “Two of our residents were murdered and one of our group witnessed it.” Henry kept his attention on Blue Hat. “Until the murderer is taken into custody, the sergeant-major thought we’d be safer with them than here.”

  “I doubt the murderer will ever be arrested.” Blue Hat scratched his head through his cap. “No one answers 9-1-1, the hospitals are closed, firemen haven’t shown up to put out the fires, and the military is sick. Little things like killing and raping…” He glanced over his shoulder, and the Latina girl looked at the ground. “They don’t matter to some. Not anymore.”

  Manny shook his head. They had to matter. What was the point in living if they didn’t? Why had Irina’s grandmother, old man Anderson, and Stash died if they didn’t?

  “They matter to us.” Henry pointed to himself then Manny. “And if they matter to you, then you’re welcome to join us. More hands to do the work and more eyes to keep watch.”

  Blue Hat raked off his cap and used the knit fabric to gesture behind him. “Some of us are sick.”

  “Doesn’t mean that all of us aren’t infected.” Henry shrugged. “Those that are sick first, will hopefully recover in time to help the next wave of sick.”

  The older woman with the crinkles at the corners of her eyes shuffled forward. Rising on her toes, she set her hand on Blue Hat’s back and whispered in his ear.

  Stooping a little, Blue Hat leaned back. He nodded a few times, while his attention ping-ponged between Henry and Manny.

  Manny tried hard not to twitch under the man’s gaze. He wasn’t on trial here. Not exactly.

  Blue Hat sighed. “When are you planning on leaving?”

  “Tomorrow morning at first light.” Henry started the ATV up. “We have enough bicycles and extra ATVs for the adults but could use a hand packing the supplies.”

  “We have some food.” Blue Hat smiled. “We’re willing to share. But I warn you, it’s got a slight smoky flavor.”

  “We’re used to that.” Henry pulled the vehicle up until the trailer was even with the leader. “Go ahead and throw your stuff in the back.”

  Blue Hat’s eyes widened at the sight of the wheelchair in the trailer.

  Manny was surprised he didn’t say anything. Walking to the back of the trailer, he unhitched the gate and lowered it slowly to the ground. “We don’t have far to go, if you’d rather carry your stuff.”

  A few shuffled forward and tossed their luggage in the back.

  When no one else moved, he closed up the trailer and secured the gate. “I’m willing to walk, if someone else wants to drive the ATV.”

  Goatee Boy raised his hand. “If it’s not too far, I could probably take a few of the little ones.”

  “Me! Me!” The two little girls missing their front teeth screeched as they jerked free of their adult and raced for the vehicle.

  Henry wiggled forward on his seat. “I could probably take another.”

  The crowd parted and a young boy with bare feet stepped gingerly forward. “I’d like a ride.”

  “Hop on.” Henry waited, until he settled on the back and wrapped his thin arms around his waist. “So if the rest of you will follow me, we’ll get introduced, eat a little bit, hand out some Tylenol, and prepare for tomorrow’s journey.”

  The girls squealed as Goatee Boy urged his vehicle behind Henry’s.

  When the Latina neared, Manny held out his arms. “I can carry her for a while, if you’d like.”

  Ducking her head, she offered him a faint smile. “Thanks. He gets pretty heavy after an hour.”

  Cradling the baby close, he adjusted its mask. Green eyes blinked up at him. “What’s his name?”

  “I don’t know.” She pushed a dark lock of hair behind her ear. “Last December, a car pulled into our neighborhood. We found his mom dead behind the wheel, and he was crying in the back seat. If Mrs. Gregor hadn’t just lost her child and taken him as her own, I don’t know how we would have fed him.”

  “You would have managed.” There was always a way. It just wasn’t always pleasant. Hopefully, the niños wouldn’t be too screwed up by what he’d done while he’d learned to parent. Manny rocked the baby in his arms.

  The little one cooed and swung his chubby fist toward his mouth. He sucked on his hand through the mask.

  “Do you think we’ll find the soldiers?” She gathered the top of her jacket and pinched it closed under her chin.

  “Yes, of course.” Manny ignored the twinge in his stomach and kept his focus on the baby. They had to find the soldiers.

  Despite the twenty new people added to their tribe, other dangers waited to prey on them, to pick them off one-by-one.

  Without the soldiers guarding them, none would survive.

  They had to reach the soldiers before the gangs found them.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  The peppy ringtone pulled Mavis from sleep. Opening one eye, she peered at the alarm clock. The blurry red numbers slowly came into focus. Seven thirty-three AM. Coughing, she slapped the nightstand. Her hand fell inches short of the cellphone but the water in her glass sloshed. With a groan, she tried again.

  Success. The plastic case cooled her fingers as she scraped it off the wood surface. Rolling onto her back, she slipped her thumb in the crease and pushed the cell open. “Hello.”

  Lovely. Her voice sounded like a bullfrog’s mating song. And judging by the size of the lump in her throat, she knew where they’d decided to set up residence.

  “Doctor Spanner.” The woman on the other line wheezed. “What gives you the right to abscond with my army?”

  Mavis blinked. How could she have pissed off someone so early in the morning? She’d been asleep for the last twelve hours for pity’s sake. Maybe she had sleep-talked and called various people in the wee hours.

  “Dr. Spanner?” The woman’s hoarse shout penetrated the batting shrouding Mavis’s thoughts.

  The voice sounded familiar.

  “Yes?” The bullfrogs had gone falsetto on her. Clearing her throat, she reached for the glass.

  “Where are my Guardsmen and Marines?”

  She knew the answer to that, didn’t she? Water circled the inside of the cup as Mavis raised her hand. The glass clinked against her tooth before her lip cushioned it. Cool water trickled down her throat, momentarily dowsing the fire raging there. After swallowing the last drop, she returned the cup to the nightstand. “I’m sorry I’m just a bit under the weather at the moment and having a hard time concentrating.”

  “Well snap out of it,” bit off the woman. “We’re all sick and still functioning. I expect no less from the Surgeon General’s flunky.”

  Flunky? Mavis sat up in bed. The fog lifted. She was nobody’s flunky! Too bad she couldn’t tell the governor just what she thought of her. Now just what the heck had they been talking about? The soldiers. Right. “I did not steal any service personnel, Madame Governor. Title Ten puts the National Guard under Federal Jurisdiction. My jurisdiction. Since the majority of the troops were sick, I ordered them to consolidate their positions.”

  “And where precisely would that be, Doctor?”

  Mavis wet her lips. “My neighborhood.”

  “They abandoned the capital?” The Governor squawked like a wet hen.

  She bit her tongue before she reminded the governor that she and the rest of the government were hiding in military bunkers far from the capital. She was on the front lines, risking what she asked others to risk. “They’ve established patrols to cover as many populated areas as possible. Under the circumstances—”

  “The circumstances? Have you looked outside? Phoenix is burning. Tucson is burning. Flagstaff is burning.” Like a stairway to heaven, the governor’s voice rose with each sentence. “The entire state is practically on fire!”

  Mavis shook her head. That
wasn’t her fault. The President had spoken about burning trash to control the plague-infested rat population. Of course, he meant for the government to collect it first. But without a government, people had taken things into their own hands.

  “I want my soldiers back in uniform.” The governor barked into the phone. “They need to get their asses fighting those fires. We can’t lose anymore infrastructure.”

  Infrastructure? Mavis rubbed her forehead smooth. Good God didn’t any politician think in terms of human life anymore? “Madame Governor, some of the men are sick.”

  “I don’t give a shit! I need those fires contained before we lose everything.”

  Pushing to her feet, Mavis ignored the aches radiating from her joints. Why couldn’t people learn from history? Just a little. Was it too much to ask? “May I remind you that sending people to work, while they’re sick, is what allowed the Redaction to spread so quickly. And this outbreak is spreading even faster than predicted.”

  “Predictions! May I remind you, Doctor that your little doom and gloom simulations failed to grasp the big picture.” The governor coughed before hacking up phlegm. “You scientists live in some dream world. Our economy needs jobs, the people need jobs. Now get my soldiers out there.”

  “And if I refuse?”

  “Martial law is in effect. If even one fails to show up for duty, I’ll personally sign the order to have you and them shot. Is that clear?”

  The line went dead before Mavis answered. Yes, it was clear. But would the governor come out of her safe hidey-hole to deliver the kill order? Unlikely. But it wasn’t her life she was playing with.

  The soldiers had a right to decide for themselves.

  Toeing into her slippers, she shuffled down the hall. Voices drifted around her. Familiar yet canned. Someone was watching television. Emerging from the hallway, she scanned the living room. Brown moose slippers were propped up on the arm of the sofa.

  “Sunnie?” Mavis felt the soft flutter in her chest where her heart normally resided.